Trustees say goodbye as their term ends with election

PASO ROBLES — After a long wait, the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District has both approved the sale of the 25-yard swimming pool and are moving forward with finalized designs for the Aquatic Center.

The district received an offer from Bay Swim Club to purchase the 25-yard swimming pool for $68,000, which was previously listed for sale as surplus property. Staff noted there was no interest from the City of Paso Robles or San Luis Obispo County to purchase the pool.

While Trustee Kenneth Enney requested to have the sale approved table to wait for further discussion with the County to purchase the pool, his motion to table died with only Enney, Frank Triggs, and Dorian Baker voting yes.

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A second motion to approve the sale to Bay Swim Club with a 4-3 vote — Baker, Enney, and Triggs voting no.

In further Aquatics Center news, Trustees approved the budget and schematic design for the center. The new plan was approved with a 6-1 vote. Baker voted no, explaining that she thought the plan should be reviewed by the incoming trustees before approval.

Construction for the Aquatics Center is expected to break ground in early July 2023.

At the start of the meeting, Superintendent Curt Dubost made a statement regarding links found on the District’s website which led to unauthorized chat rooms and explicit content. You can find more on the explicit links here pasoroblespress.com/news/paso-robles-school-district-removes-link-to-safe-zone-project/

Dubost met with Trustees Enney and Nathan Williams to discuss the links and issued the following statement, “Based on community concerns about a link that was available for a short time as a resource from another organization’s website that is also directly listed on the California Department of Education’s webpage resources, we have done additional follow-up to determine if students would have been able to access a chat room on the district network and or computers. They absolutely could not have done so. The District has multiple levels of student safety and security in place.”

In response to the links, Dubost said he and staff will now carefully review all links and attachments that come through their office.

Trustee Baker presented a proposed resolution to oppose youth access to marijuana through retail storefronts, cultivation, manufacturing, and testing of commercial cannabis. Baker requested to agendize the item in response to the City of Paso Robles’ current ordinance considering retail sales of cannabis in city limits.

After some discussion, the proposed resolution was tabled to be discussed when the new trustees assume their new roles on the board. 

With the General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 8, trustees Lance Gannon and Tim Gearhart completed their final term on the PRJUSD board. Neither Gannon or Gearhart ran for re-election. The two said their farewells to fellow trustees and wrapped up their final meetings.

Trustee Triggs and Chris Arent said their potential goodbyes as the election results continue to be counted. The two are running for re-election — see Paso Robles Press’s article on page A1 for the election results with outcomes.  

The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District will meet again on Dec. 6 for an organizational meeting where the new trustees will take on their new roles.